Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery 8 Review: Recovers Like A Pro!

Losing out on your critical business data, an important project or other valuable files on your Mac can invite frustration and financial drains. In most cases, people would run to an IT specialist in hopes of getting their data recovered, but thankfully, there are automated solutions in the market that can save the day for you, and that too, without having to spend a fortune.

Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery – Professional is one such product that offers highly convenient data recovery with the help of an easy-to-operate UI and a number of powerful recovery features. But is this product worth it? Let us find out in this detailed review.

The Product

Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery – Professional is offered by Stellar Recovery, a long established name in the utility software market. They have an attractive line-up of business and home solutions, ranging from file repair & recovery software to email toolkits.

The Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery software can recover deleted, lost, or formatted files on your Mac machines such as the iMac, Macbooks, Mac Mini, etc. If you recently formatted one of your data volumes, you can recover unintentionally deleted files using the product even from your external HD.

The “Professional” version costs 6,499 INR (approx. 99 USD) for a single system and comes with a lifetime validity. As per my view, this package is the best deal for users looking for a simple data recovery tool as compared to the Platinum and Technician variants that have a higher price tag for advanced features.

The V8 Professional version that I tested has two newly added features: Recover backups stored in the Time Machine, and Recover data from encrypted HDs.

Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery 8 Review

In the review, I tested the V8 Professional version of the product on a MacBook Pro with a 512 GB HDD, running Mac OS High Sierra 10.13. In order to test the software’s functionality, I created and deleted a picture file, a PDF, an Excel file, an audio file, and a video file, and put them in a folder named “File and stuff”.

After that, I ran the software about five days later to make my first attempt to recover the deleted files.

The Software

The software was quick to download and install. I received the activation key and the download link in an email as per the company’s delivery policies.

First up, you get the file type selection screen wherein you can specify what type of files you want to recover. Recover everything if that’s what you want and so I did.

Then you get the volume selection screen which basically asks you the volume from which you want to recover the lost files. In case you have a lost volume, you can use it to recover that as well.

After that, an instruction page pops up and tells you to disable csurtil from the Terminal. It can be accessed in the Recovery Mode.

The software didn’t run until this specific instruction was carried out, so you might as well face this on your system. Do not worry and carry on as per the provided instructions; it later works out just fine.

After two restarts, the software was ready to execute the recovery operations. Although this was no big deal for me, it might make other Mac users feel lost as they might not be expecting such things. Nothing major to worry about though. Anyhow, I opened the software to recover my files.

Key Results after Testing the Software

User Interface

The interface has been kept very simple which ensures that you don’t get lost while working with the software. The interface design guides the user through the whole process and it works efficiently until the files are recovered.

The recovery results return a large number of files, and finding a particular file that you were looking for might become a bit of a hassle.

The folder hierarchy makes sure that the files are not scattered after recovery, and if you remember the folder name, you should have no problem getting the file you’ve been looking for, back. Getting lost in folders is, however, a possibility.

Recovery Process

The recovery took about 10 minutes of time and I was able to retrieve about 7 GB worth of files from about 33,000 folders. I knew what folder I was looking for, therefore I searched for it in the search bar, which didn’t get me the results I was looking for.

This was done using the Quick Scan option which is supposedly faster than the Deep Scan feature. I had to look through the folders arranged according to file formats such as Audio, MP3, Document etc, where I actually found some old deleted files as well as the test files that I intentionally deleted.

Later the Deep Scan got even more results but this time I found it hard to find my test files. There were just too many files and folders to rummage this time around, so maybe the Quick Scan is good enough.

Ease of Use

Using the software is pretty easy. I made some of my non-techie friends have a go at the software and they were able to operate it without me providing them with any information regarding the operation of the software.

The initial settings with the Terminal might require a bit of messing around but that too is doable if you simply follow the instructions. So, overall, this is an extremely easy tool to use.

Recovery Efficiency

The files that were deleted for the experiment were fully recovered but were a tad bit hard to find. If the developers improve the post-recovery file search functions, the software can beat other market products any day.

The number of files recovered in Deep Scan was around half a million with 66 GB of data, which is good enough for the software of this segment. You get to recover encrypted files and Windows Bootcamp files as well, which is a plus. Both of them showed up in the results.

The Verdict

The Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery 8 is a handy tool to get your lost data back. For a fair price point, the software has a lot to offer, from recovering a heavy amount of files to being an easy-to-use software for the non-techie users.

I deem it recommendable for users who wish to find a quick fix for their lost data without spending on IT repair services. For professional users, the costlier variants have better features as compared to other competitive software packages in the market but none is as economical as this one.

I believe the upcoming versions of Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery 8 will offer an improved post-recovery search experience, and the software will top the chart for Mac data recovery tools!

REVIEW OVERVIEW

User Interface

Recovery Process

Ease of Use

Recovery Efficiency

SUMMARY

The Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery 8 is a handy tool to get your lost data back. For a fair price point, the software has a lot to offer, from recovering a heavy amount of files to being an easy-to-use software for the non-techie users.
I deem it recommendable for users who wish to find a quick fix for their lost data without spending on IT repair services. For professional users, the costlier variants have better features as compared to other competitive software packages in the market but none is as economical as this one.
I believe the upcoming versions of Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery 8 will offer an improved post-recovery search experience, and the software will top the chart for Mac data recovery tools!

I am a techie who learned to write! With a Computer Science Degree and a lot of experience in messing around with technology, I bring real content to the readers of Ionizer.
I happen to be the founding members of the venture, with all-around participation in editorial and research activities.
Apart from the nerd-talk, I write poetry and love watching movies.